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Takuro Nakai
Takuro Nakai was an assistant-for-Niizuma-turned manga artist. He won a monthly award ten years ago, and has been determined to get serialized since. He is good with backgrounds and angles. He was the artist of Hideout Door, and worked with Aoki Yuriko. After Hideout Door is cancelled, Nakai leaves, because he is sick of himself and how he used manga for his own personal gain, returning to manga after Nanamine requests for his assistance in manga. Personality & Character Nakai is a gifted, but desperate and lonely middled-aged (33 years old when first introduced) manga assistant. For many years, he wanted to become an accomplished mangaka; he dreams of working on a successful manga series; he never acted upon his ambitions until experiencing the fiery passions of Muto Ashirogi. No longer able to stand by and see younger mangakas succeed him, he mustered his strength to focus on getting published and directly compete with his mangaka peers. Opportunity and optimistisc hope would rise when he met Yuriko Aoki. Nakai teamed up with Aoki to help propel her manga series, Hideout Door, to compete with her peers; Nakai saw Aoki as his one-shot ticket to achieving all his goals in life: A chance to work closely with a great beauty, possibly ending his loneliness and also a chance to get his art published. However, his hopes was dashed after Aoki replaced him with another artist. In his desperation to prove his art is good, he would draw outside her apartment whenever he had time, enduring the harsh cold and bullying from street punks. After much tenacity, to his joy, Aoki taken him back, but the series would be canceled and it propelled him to darker places of anger, resentment, jealousy, and sadness. However, his hopes would be renewed again after he was assigned to work on Shoyo Takahama's Business Boy Kenichi. It was there that he quickly developed feelings for fellow assistant, Natsumi Kato. Being a man with little experience with women and desperate need to be appreciated, he misread Kato's friendly conversations as her showing interest in him. His desperation for love, recognition, validation, and respect cumulated towards his downfall. When Aoki requested Nakai to help her in her new series, Season of Green Leaves, Nakai became hubris and made an unreasonable demand: Aoki would become his girlfriend. Nakai was shocked when Aoki responded to his demand with a hard slap to his face. Not able to see the error of his ways, he only saw Aoki as the problem and felt Kato would be better suited for him. However, he was also rejected by Kato when he tried to ask her out on a date. With Business Boy Kenichi ending, Nakai found himself alone again. Nakai was desperate to rebound with Aoki by offering his services to her, but she could never accept Nakai ever again. It was his lowest moment in life (35 years old, shattered dreams, and alienated everyone in his life) that he realized that he made himself despicable in the eyes of his peers. Embarrassed and ashamed over his nonprofessional behavior, he left Tokyo for his country village. However, before he left, his fellow mangakas (including Aoki), caught up with him and bid him farewell, showing there are no harsh feelings between each other. While it may have seemed Nakai saw the error of his ways, he actually became even worse after returning home. Without a career, no job, and no prospects, Nakai drowned his days at home, eating and drinking his woes away with TV. Even though obese, he gained additional weight as he's a depressed emotional eater. His own mother lost respect for him, but hope would rise from a unexpected call from the up-and-coming star rookie, Toru Nanamine, to work on his new manga series, What is Required. Nanamine recognized Nakai's art skills and gave him command over his team of assistants and offered him unlimited pizza (his favorite) to gain his membership. Seeing this as a opportunity to rise from obscurity and compete with his peers again, he took the deal and helped Nanamine compete against Muto Ashirogi. Although Nakai helped bring popularity and acclaim to What is Required, Nakai wasn't liked by his assistant peers. Aside from his newfound disgusting eating habits, he made it obvious to everyone that he's sexist as he would show favoritism to the women and disdain against the men in Nanamine's team. When he found out that Nanamine was using 50 people to help realize his manga, Nakai turned a blind-eye to his own feelings as a professional mangaka in order to maintain his job. Appearance Nakai is overweight man with short black hair and small black eyes. While occasionally well-dressed, he's often wearing a white shirt (with optional towel over his neck) and wide blue pants (unclear is it jeans or sweats). Due to his depression, he's gained anywhere between 20-50 pounds and continues to wear his original clothes when he clearly no longer fits in them. It is noted that he shaves off his stubble whenever he sees with a pretty girl. History Beginnings Naki was born from a farm village, outside of Tokyo. While not explained, his mother is only present in his life and his father is presumed either dead or out of the picture. At some point, Nakai developed his manga skills and began working for Jack as a manga assistant. Over the years, Nakai continued to serve as a assistant to many manga artists; he had his own aspirations in creating a successful manga, but didn't have the resolve to realize it as he felt other mangakas were superior to his abilities. Assisting Crow & Realizing One's Ambition Jack would later assign Nakai to assist Nizuma for his Crow series. Aside from himself, he was partnered with Shinta Fukuda and Moritaka Mashiro (half the team of Muto Ashirogi). Inspired by their youthful aspirations and support from his fellow mangakas, Nakai realized at his advanced age, it's now or never to become a published mangaka. Everyone assisting in Nizuma's Crow vowed to return with a great series to compete with each other. Golden Future Cup & Protest Against Koogy Nakai's dreams and ambitions would come true when he was partnered with Yuriko Aoki. Aoki recruited Nakai's art skills to develop her up-and-coming fantasy one-shot manga, Hideout Door; it's Aoki's and Nakia's official entry to Jack's Golden Future Cup manga competition. Nakai did the drawings and Aoki did the story. Everyone was amazed at how good Nakai's backgrounds were. Things would become dicey as fellow mangakas called each other for a mutual meeting about Koogy's entry into the cup. All the artists felt cheated as Koogy was manipulating the votes of his beloved fans to alter the cup in his favor. While Nakai was less determined than his fellow mangakas, he followed Fukuda complain about the unfairness of Koogy's entry. However, just as tensions rose, Mashiro believed so long as they presented an interesting story, they would be on top. This statement temporarily quelled everyone's problem against Koogy. Unwilling to lose and willing to show each other's progress in their projects, Aoki and Nakai met at Nizuma's studio to compare notes. When comparing each other's work, Nakai was shocked at the level of story and art skills his youthful peers had achieved. While Nakai was nervous about winning the cup, Aoki was far more confident that her story doesn't require tweaking and will defeat all the men in the cup. Supporting Aoki's belief in their work, he was quick to agree with her. He escorted Aoki to the train station as the rest of the mangakas split off to revise their own works. After the New Years Party Nakai is heartbroken that Aoki is working with Makaino Koji. She tells him that his drawings couldn't convey the world in her story. He stays in a park next to Aoki's apartment, to draw and show her that he would be a better assistant. Fukuda trys to bring him back, but couldn't stop him. He draws whenever he had free time and all day when he had the day off. During this time a massive blizzard struck, but he continued to draw. Aoki was amazed to see his quality of backgrounds despite the conditions. Nakai, soon after, is attacked by street punks. He desperately protects his drawings and his hand so he can continue to draw. Eventually everyone is worried that Nakai will die if he continues. Fukuda, Takagi, Mashiro, and Miyoshi try to bring him inside, only to find Aoki holding an umbrella over him. She tells him the truth, that she only blamed their lack of serialization on him, and agrees to work with him again. Creator Strike Nakai, along with Aoki, Fukuda, Hiramaru, and Niizuma firmly stand on their beliefs to get Sasaki to allow Mashiro to continue to draw while in the hospital, refusing to draw until Detective Trap was reinstated. During the strike, Nakai took time to improve the drawings of Hideout Door. Hideout Door's Cancellation and Business Boy Kenichi When Hideout Door was cancelled due to low popularity, Nakai was deeply saddened and immediately went on a sobbing rampage, tossing whatever he could across the studio. As the weeks toward its forced ending, Nakai became increasingly depressed. Not too long after Hideout Door's cancellation, he is picked up by Shoyo Takahama to work on his manga, Business Boy Kenichi and becomes infatuated with Kato. Business Boy Kenichi's Cancellation and a Tearful Farewell. Aoki, calls Nakai to ask for his assistance in her new ecchi series'' Season of Green Leaves. He wonders which will be a better situation, hooking up with Aoki by working with her or continue working with Kato. He asks her to meet up at a restaurant and tells Aoki that if she wants him to draw for her, she must be his girlfriend. Out of disgust, she slaps him in the face saying that he's the most disgusting person she's ever met. Nakai leaves, deciding that she's no good. Later, as Kenichi's ratings plummet, Nakai is worried that he'll never get to work with Kato any longer. He tries to subtly ask Kato to date him, but she says that she likes younger men and doesn't want anything to do romance wise with him. Realizing that Aoki needs new assistants for her manga he calls her. He begs her to let him draw for her. Unfortunately he tells her that he's calling because he got dumped by Kato. Aoki still refuses to let him draw for her (not that it mattered because she wanted only female assistants.) After, he refused to show up to work. Takahama calls him and finds out that he's quitting manga and is returning home. After Takahama calls Mashiro, Mashiro calls Nakai wondering why he's quitting. Nakai says that he's disgusted at himself for using his drawing skills for the wrong reason. The next day, Mashiro tries to stop him in person, but he's dead set on leaving. As he leaves, Fukuda and Aoki are outside. Aoki thanks him for his work with her. He apologizes for his actions then promptly leaves. Fukuda shouts if he's going to end it like this. Tear struck, he departs without another word. For a while, the last appearance of Nakai was in his home back in Akita. He appeared to be working on his family's farm, though appeared to be doing nothing other than lazing around. His mother was upset that he quit, calling him pathetic. Nakai, out of frustration, left to go to bed. In the interim, Nakai (unbeknownst to him) was mentioned by Iwase, who was hoping he might be the artist for her oneshot for the Super Leaders' Love Fest when she is displeased by a busty character design drawn by the artist she worked with, Happongi. Miura quickly tells her that Nakai gave up manga because he's forty years old already" and because "he had some sort of female trouble." Nanamine Tooru In the current fight between Ashirogi Muto and Nanamine, Nakai is revealed to be Nanamine's secret weapon, easily compensating for any deficiencies in art that Nanamine may have suffered previously. Nakai has gotten even more obese than before, frequently ordering pizzas through using Nanamine's money, a privelege offered through his position as Chief Assistant. It is revealed that Nakai was recruited by Nanamine while the former was on a drinking binge. Nanamine convinces him to go back to the world of manga, made easier by the presence of five other female assistants. Nakai is shown to largely favor those female assistants over the male ones, treating them considerably better and with a side motivation to defeat Aoki Ko. One night, as he runs out of money to order pizza, Nakai knocks on Nanamine's door requesting more money. Hearing no response, Nakai realizes the truth of where Nanamine gets his ideas for manga from. He praises Nanamine openly, but feels conflicted within, reminded of the hard work he and the rest of Team Fukuda had to suffer as mangaka. He disregards this conflict by eating more pizza, showing that he has come to terms with Nanamine's methods. Nakai dresses up in a suit to greet Aoki Ko, only to be utterly depressed when he finds out that she is dating Hiramaru. He requests for all the male assistants to be removed, much to Nanamine's irritation. Manga Works Hideout Door's Serialization ''Hideout Door was being serialized in Jump. Its first chapter got 1st place and its third chapter got 5th place; Nakai had his own assistant. Assistant Works *Crow *BB Kenichi *What is Required Picture Gallery Articles & References External Links Category:Male Characters Category:Mangaka Category:Assistants Category:Bakuman Characters